


Dum Dum Sweepstakes

by CameraLux (TinCanTelephone)



Series: From Tumblr, With <3 [36]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Banter, F/M, Flirting, Four Seasons Total Landscaping AU, Friendly competition, Humor, I can't believe I jumped on this train lol, Romance, anyway enjoy, cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27661490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinCanTelephone/pseuds/CameraLux
Summary: A harmless afternoon of flirting has news-worthy (and highly meme-able) consequences.
Relationships: Toph Beifong/Sokka
Series: From Tumblr, With <3 [36]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1035882
Comments: 16
Kudos: 40





	Dum Dum Sweepstakes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brightestmoony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightestmoony/gifts), [miracleshappen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miracleshappen/gifts).



> Or, Sokka and Toph are carpool buddies to their dead-end jobs at a landscaping company and a crematorium. 
> 
> Anyway you can thank [aang-can-save-the-world](https://aang-can-save-the-world.tumblr.com/) and [mushroomiracle](https://mushroomiracle.tumblr.com/) for begging me to write this pure crack XD

"Well, well, well.” Sokka put down his phone and spun around in his chair. “If it isn’t the Blind Bandit.” 

“Thut up.” Toph pulled the lollipop out from behind her mask and walked over to her usual chair across the counter, white cane clicking on the linoleum. “And for the last time, I didn’t _steal_ Mrs. Park’s bracelet, the family didn’t want it. Besides, you’re the one who told me it had a meteorite in it.” 

He laughed. “I didn’t know that for sure, I just said that rock _looked_ like a meteorite.” 

She smacked his arm. “Well how’m I supposed to know what it looked like? You’re the nerd taking the astronomy classes!” 

“Hey, the community college had a discount since they’re all online.”

She ignored him. “Besides, how many times have I caught you asleep on the job, _Snoozles_?” 

“Whatever. This job is super boring, and Bato doesn’t care as long as I wake up when the phone rings.” 

Toph rolled her eyes and pulled another lollipop out of her pocket. “Dum Dum?”

“Sure.” He unwrapped it and took off his mask. There was no one else around and he and Toph shared a half-hour carpool to and from work every other day. “Where do these keep coming from?”

She grinned. “Pre-plague, I convinced Bumi we should keep a bowl of them at the front desk.”

“Why?” 

She shrugged. “I thought it would class the place up a bit. Y’know, like a bank.”

He stared. “Toph… I don’t know how to tell you this but a crematorium will never achieve the same vibe as a bank.”

She gave a mournful sigh. “And now we’ll never know. Can’t very well have a bowl sitting out for randos to stick their grubby hands into anymore.” 

He shook his head. “You’re nuts.” 

Another grin. “You love it.” She leaned one elbow on the counter and twisted her chair towards him. 

He leaned forward and rolled his tongue over the lollipop (Blu Raspberry), trying to think of something to say that would strike the right balance between _flirting_ and _casual_.

Before he could, she bit down hard on the last of her lollipop (Root Beer), and pulled the clean stick out of her mouth. She raised her arm to throw it into the trash can across the room. 

“Oh, come on, don’t do that,” he whined. 

She paused. “What? Why?”

He groaned. “You’re going to miss, and I’m going to have to pick it up off the gross floor to throw it away.”

“Who says I’m going to miss?”

“Uhh…” He cast about for something to say other than, _I don’t remember the blind being very good at basketball_. 

“Have you rearranged this room since the last time I was here?”

“Of course not.” He was convinced that was 90% of the reason she liked hanging out here after her shift at the crematorium. No one ever bothered to get fancy with the feng shui of low-end landscaping businesses. 

“Ten bucks says I make it in,” she said. 

He crossed his arms. “You know I never have any money, nor am I good for an IOU.” 

“Fine.” She thought about it for a second. “If I win, I get to answer the next phone call. No exceptions.”

“No fair, what if it’s important! Toph, I could lose my job.” 

She scoffed. “Please, Bato would never fire you.”

“What if they want to book a job? You said yourself our computer’s screen reader is total garbage.”

“I’ll just remember the details and you can put it in later. Come onnnn.” She tilted her head back and gave him her best puppy-dog eyes. “I wanna have some fun. Besides, who’s going to make a _serious_ call at–” she felt the face of her watch, “5:40 on a Friday?”

“Fine,” he grumbled. “Only because I know you’ll miss.” 

“Read ‘em and weep.” After reaching out with her cane to tap the side of the trash can, Toph took careful aim and tossed the stick in a smooth arc, where it landed in the bag with soft _swish_. 

Sokka smacked his forehead. “No fucking way!”

“I’m amazing!” Toph did a double-arm pump and leaned over the counter to feel around for the phone. “You’re a fool, Sokka– _never_ bet against a Beifong.”

He let his head thunk down on his arms, then almost choked on his lollipop. “You cheated. I don’t know how, but you cheated.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I’ve been pretending to be blind the entire time I’ve known you just to win this one bet.”

“I wouldn’t put it past you.” 

She snickered and leaned over the phone. “Whoever calls next is going to get exactly what they deserve for calling fifteen minutes before closing time.” 

“Come on, Toph.”

“What should I tell them my name is? Eileen Anbendover or I. P. Freely?”

He snorted despite himself and his lollipop fell onto the floor. “Now look what you made me do.” 

“Can’t,” she said blithely. “I never see anything that you do.”

He groaned and slid off his chair. His lollipop had just joined her stick in the trash when the phone rang, scaring the shit out of both of them. 

After a moment of shocked hesitation, Toph picked it up. “Hello?”

Sokka rushed back to the counter and waited on the edge of his toes, straining to hear the other side of the conversation. They were speaking quickly, almost frantically– he thought he caught the words _four seasons_.

Toph just looked confused. “Uhh, yeah,” she said when they finished. 

The caller started speaking again. 

Toph’s look of confusion intensified, and she tilted her head towards the parking lot. “I guess so.”

Sokka started to mouth _What the fuck_ before remembering she couldn’t see and settled for gripping the counter so hard his knuckles turned white. 

“Tomorrow?” she finally said. “Uhh, sure.” After another pause, “No charge.”

“ _What?”_ he hissed. Fuck, Bato was _so_ going to fire him, who cared how many times his dad saved his life in Iraq. Sokka made a grab for the phone but Toph fended him off with one arm, and he was reminded again never to pick fights with women who pushed around dead bodies for a living. 

“Yeah,” she said into the phone. “No problem. …You’re welcome. Have a nice day.” She hung up and grinned. “That’s what customer service people are supposed to say, right? ‘ _Have a nice day_?’”

“I don’t– Toph who the fuck was that? What did you do?” Sokka was already running through the mental math of what would happen if he lost his only source of income. If he ate nothing but funyuns he could probably hold out for a month and a half before he’d have to move in with his sister. Sure, swallowing his pride would be difficult but he’d do it to avoid homelessness–

“Oh, calm down,” Toph said. “I didn’t do anything.”

“ _What_? You said, ‘I guess so,’ and ‘no charge!’” He threw up his hands. “And I don’t know if you know this but we don’t exactly provide services for free here!”

She waved a hand. “They didn’t ask for a service. They asked if there was space to hold an event here. I told them sure.”

Sokka looked around the tiny office. “Uhh… where is this _space_ you speak of?”

She shrugged. “I figure they can hold it in the parking lot, it’s huge. Bad form to hold events inside these days, anyway. And it’ll be empty tomorrow, because you guys are closed, right?” 

“Toph…” Sokka leaned on the counter and held his head in his hands. “They probably called the wrong number! This is a landscaping business, we don’t _do_ events!”

She checked the time and slid off her chair. “Well they asked if this was was _The Four Seasons_ first and when I told them yes they kept going. They seemed kinda stressed. They were talking really fast, anyway. Didn’t even catch a name.” 

“Jesus Christ.”

“It’s 5:55, let’s get out of here,” she said. “I’m sure it’s not a big deal, but if you want to swing by here at 11:30 tomorrow to check it out I’d be down. We could watch from that porn store next door.” 

He took out his keys to lock up. “For the last time, I’m _not_ going in that place. I feel like I’ll get herpes just from touching the door handle.”

“ _Pffft,_ that’s your problem. You’ve got no sense of adventure.” 

“I’m pretty sure you say ‘sense of adventure’ where anyone else would say ‘terrifying lust for chaos.’“ He pulled on his jacket and shoulder bag and led them to his car. 

“Oh Sokka.” She looped her arm though his and he bit his lip through the warm feeling that spread in his chest. “If the past week has taught us anything, it’s that the world is full of chaos. Might as well embrace it, right?”

_I’d like to embrace_ you. He bit back the cheesy line as they paused outside his car. 

She seemed reluctant to let go of his arm to go around to the passenger side, and he almost wished the walk to the car was longer. He wondered if it would be too much to take off her mask and kiss her right there, but as soon as he thought it, that didn’t feel so romantic.

Reluctantly, he allowed their arms to drop and unlocked the car, turning the heat on high as soon as she was inside. 

_It wasn’t the right moment_ , he told himself. _When the moment is right, I’ll know it._

(30 hours later, when they’re making out in between fits of laughter behind the porn store and three Fox News vans, he’ll be _very_ glad he waited.) 

**Author's Note:**

> [Original Tumblr Post](https://cats-and-metersticks.tumblr.com/post/634566047364677632/fic-dum-dum-sweepstakes)
> 
> I'm still on tumblr as [cats-and-metersticks](https://cats-and-metersticks.tumblr.com/) trying to make my way through the simulation


End file.
